w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

The topic for today’s FlashBlog, soon to be revealed over at Clear Blue Skies, reminded me of the eulogy I was asked to provide for my Aunt’s funeral. I saw her not long before her death, when my cousins arranged a family get- together while she was still capable of recognising faces from her past – you could tell it wouldn’t be long ..

Now I really dislike addressing an audience - even one composed mainly of family - but I felt honoured to be asked and steeled myself to deliver it without reading from notes.

So, stood there at the lectern and wearing my loudest tie (as instructed) she got what I hoped was a humorous send-off, because she was that sort of person.

I’d remembered both of our families driving out to a field and playing French cricket. Being a tad portly, we decided that when she went into bat, we’d deliberately miss her with the ball and had her running around like a demented banshee, until she collapsed from exhaustion.

One Christmas, she called round wearing her best coat and my brother and I ambushed her with two cans of Crazy Foam. She sat there, rocking with laughter, like a large meringue being electrocuted.

And once, I showed her what a magnifying glass and the sun could do – on the back of her hand. I learned two new words that day – one was “sadistic” and the other was a bit surprising, because I knew that she knew my Dad?

Whenever she was stuck for a word, she’d say “And ‘er um”, which to this day we use as a euphemism for deodorant – underarm, y’see!

I felt I’d earned the right to tap the coffin on the way past, as my goodbye to Auntie Anderum. She was, as they say, a good old stick.